


like blood from a one horned draft horse

by Anonymous



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Gen, Mild Gore, Moral Ambiguity, a slight hint of Quirrelmort, background Dumbledore/Grindlewald, perhaps this will be cathartic for the author?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-27
Updated: 2018-08-27
Packaged: 2019-06-17 00:49:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15449655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/





	like blood from a one horned draft horse

There once was a boy who was made to live in the cupboard under the stairs in the otherwise normal home of his mother's sister and her husband, only to be informed upon his eleventh birthday that he deserved none of this; that he was a wizard and a hero.

But years, decades, before that, there was a girl in an orphanage who could do nothing "right"—that is, nothing to the satisfaction of the matron or staff—who was informed upon _her_ eleventh birthday by one Albus Dumbledore, that she was a witch. This did not strike Tom (yes—no one had had the heart to tell her poor unloved mother before she died that she had not had the son she had wanted) Riddle as good news, exactly.

Informative, it might be, but it also rang like an insult in her ears.

"No, you're a good girl, it only means you can do magic, which I understand you have," said the red headed Dumbledore (he was lying blandly through his ugly mustache), and plastered a play-acting smile on his face.

"Good girl". That followed her, from Dumbledore, and from his colleagues, through six of her seven years of schooling, until--until Myrtle died and no one could be entirely convinced she hadn't meant it. (How, precisely, was she supposed to know how to operate centuries old secret entrances perfectly _and_ the proper precautions to take upon discovering them and a darling but foolish (like a big, untrained dog, really) basilisk she hadn't guessed was there?) But really all that changed was that Dumbledore stopped lying quite so much and hated her more transparently.

He knew. And he judged her. For being born out of wedlock. For (she found out fifth year, a week before OWLs, and was shaken to the core) being of Slytherin's blood, but also not being purely that, for being halfblood like he was. For being female and keenly interested in all sorts of things and doing what she felt she must to remain in decent graces with the population of her house. 

Dumbledore, naturally, thought he was observant. He was not so perspicacious: he did not seem to realize he was transparently mooning over, of all people, Grindelwald; he failed to realize that people, in both his house and hers, had frequently switched from admiration to digust over the muggle chancellor and over Grindelwald on patriotic grounds, without really rejecting what they stood for—

Dumbledore hadn't quite even made that step, so smitten was he.

* * *

If this were a fairy tale, and the world had provided the imagery moralists were wont to have, there would be some obviously vile, perhaps deformed, creature standing over the most delicate white racehorse, except provided with a horn, rapaciously sucking its blood.

It did, perhaps, look scary, cast in dramatic shadows by the full moon. And yes, unicorns were glowing magical horses. And yes, Tom was spattered with blood—that is what happens sometimes when one has a nosebleed. Apparently it could strike terror into a boy hero's heart.

Unicorns were not what they had led Tom Riddle to expect. They were luminescent in the moonlight, they came in as many or more colors as horses, they were extraordinarily calm (in contrast to much of what she had read about horses), and these, at least, resembled the farm horses she had seen out train windows in her first decade, except that someone had stuck a narwhal's horn to their face, high on their heads. Unicorns, Quirrel had said, did not actually care about maidenhood (and why would they?), but they could sense a person's history of intent in their nature, perhaps creating the myth by denying violent and insistent men access to them.

Tom was astounded they let her come close, but then she was impersonating Quirrel, and they did not have a precise medical magic as they had asked. And she had desired it. 

Unicorn blood did not taste pleasant--harshly metallic, warm and slightly coagulated. She should not like to be a vampire. This, however, was ancient magic.

* * *

Tom Riddle avoided most of the Muggleborns and Muggle-raised half-bloods at Hogwarts for a number of reasons. For one thing, purebloods assumed "Tom" was mugglish eccentricity and remained politely quiet about it, while Muggleborns wanted to know the story (which she had little wish for them to know) behind it, and laughed. They also wanted to exchange stories of their upbringing, and she had no wish to share the orphanage on demand. It was not, perhaps, ideal, but the purebloods only assumed any muggle circumstance was pitiable, and did not ask after them.

Additionally, as prejudiced as they might be (but Tom found them mostly silently so, and coldly polite about it.), no pureblood had, in her experience, despite the name, harassed people about other aspects of where they came from.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...should eventually be continued but may be v e r y slow.


End file.
